Word: rebels
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Neither side in Afghanistan's nine-year-old civil war wasted much time last week in attempting to fill the country's power vacuum. Just three days after the departure of the last Soviet troops based in Afghanistan, as major cities became the target of sporadic but deadly rebel rocket attacks, the government of President Najibullah abruptly slapped a state-of-emergency decree on the country. The mujahedin, meanwhile, after two weeks of paralyzing delays, managed to reach at least tentative agreement on the leadership of a rival government-in-exile...
...their "interim" government Ahmat Shah, 44, a U.S.-trained engineer and hard- line fundamentalist. Muhammad Nabi Muhammadi, 68, a former member of Afghanistan's parliament, was named to fill the largely ceremonial office of President. The shura thus managed to bridge, for the moment, the principal issue dividing the rebel side: whether post-Soviet Afghanistan should be governed as an Islamic revolutionary state, on the Iranian model, or as one that is moderate and secular. Shah strongly advocates the fundamentalist approach, and Muhammadi heads one of the moderate factions...
Heavy fighting and rebel attacks on food convoys have made many of the roads virtually impassable, giving rise to deepening food and fuel shortages. Last week when the United Nations attempted an emergency airlift of food, medicine and blankets to Kabul, the effort was temporarily stalled because crew members of the EgyptAir cargo plane feared rebel attacks. Two days later, however, Ethiopian Airlines delivered the first supplies from...
...breaking down the morale of government troops, the rebels hope to trigger defections or even rebellion within the army ranks. Some rebel commanders boast that army garrisons around the country have arranged for their own surrender, and that soldiers will turn themselves over to the mujahedin shortly after the last Soviets pull out. But according to one scenario making the rounds in Washington, the rebels will not need to manipulate the economic and military noose for very long. The ruling party, these analysts conclude, will hang itself. "The rot within the ((ruling party)) is already pronounced," says a State Department...
...much for theory. In reality, the quota system has been ineffective in controlling the trade. Up to 90% of the tusks that enter the marketplace have been taken illegally by poachers, and smugglers have little trouble getting the ivory out of Africa. Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi has reportedly financed his insurrection with ivory taken from more than 100,000 elephants. Some countries seem to be conduits for the illegal trade. With roughly 4,500 elephants of its own, Somalia has still managed to export tusks from an estimated 13,800 elephants in the past three years, evidence that...